Traditional Hmong Funerals

[ice]

What is the purpose of staying at the funeral home 24 hours?  I also heard they fold gold paper into beautiful shapes.  Why is that?   I’ve never gone to a traditional funeral before but I’ve heard they do that.  It sounds interesting so I’m just curious.     

[LadyLionness]

What is the purpose of staying at the funeral home 24 hours?  I also heard they fold gold paper into beautiful shapes.  Why is that?   I’ve never gone to a traditional funeral before but I’ve heard they do that.  It sounds interesting so I’m just curious.     

They said that after a person have passed away, the house is very cold... not literally, but feeling wise... so with lots of people there, 24 hours a day, it gives them comfort and warmth (some spirits came back looking for food, etc).

The folding of gold paper is to "create gold bars" for the deceased to take with them to the spiritual world.

[ice]

What about the music?  What is the purpose of the playing of the traditional Hmong instrument and the beating of the drum?   

[thehotone]

as seen as the web.... just goggle it.. (1) Not so thoroughly documented, however, is another essential text performed during the lengthy Hmong funeral in which the soul of the deceased receives detailed instructions about its journey to the world of the ancestors. The burden of this aspect of communication with the dead falls to a musical instrument that acts as a speech surrogate, the six-piped free reed Hmong aerophone, the qeej, or "mouth organ" (FIGURE 1). Its directive to the dead is called "The Song of Expiring Life," or Qeej Tu Siav--literally, "The Song of Cut-off Breath." These instructions to the soul have a silent existence as sung poems in the mind and memory of the qeej player that become manifest as sound in the seven (2) notes of the qeej's language for the dead. Few living people other than qeej players understand this encoded language, which addresses an invisible audience of the dead soul, household spirits, ancestors, and the souls of sacrificed animals. Only this unseen audience possesses the protocols for unlocking the musical and linguistic code, thereby comprehending the meaning of the qeej's sounds. (3)

[ice]

Very interesting. 

[Qau]

Niko..are you even Hmong? If you are than this is very disappointing that a Hmong person does not know or been to a traditional funeral. Hmong funerals are like stories, that are told when one marries until dead when one departs. They involve families and in-laws.

The qeej is just one important aspect of the funeral. There are thawj lwm tub ncig(cuab tsav, kav xwm, thawj xyom cuab, tswj kab, txiv taw kev, txiv qeej, etc) maum phauj, txiv xov dab, txiv dab laug, txiv coj xaiv.

We qeej players understand some of each other's notes since all the songs are somewhat similar in words. The drum beats follow the qeej in a ceremony.  The first and longest song, "last breath", can last as long as 8 hours.
I learned three, 4 hours, 6 hours, and 8 hours. Depending on the age of the death, a child gets the 4 hour song, middle aged person gets 6 hours, and old person gets the 8 hours. Some players just learned one(1).

Funeral songs have very profound meaning and thus we are prohibited from playing inside a residence or even learning inside a home. It is believed these sad notes can lure away your house spirit or your own spirit and cause you illness.

[Xyooj96]

The qeej is just one important aspect of the funeral. There are thawj lwm tub ncig(cuab tsav, kav xwm, thawj xyom cuab, tswj kab, txiv taw kev, txiv qeej, etc) maum phauj, txiv xov dab, txiv dab laug, txiv coj xaiv.

what are the primary roles of these people? 

[saki saki]

What is the purpose of staying at the funeral home 24 hours?  I also heard they fold gold paper into beautiful shapes.  Why is that?   I’ve never gone to a traditional funeral before but I’ve heard they do that.  It sounds interesting so I’m just curious.     

let me guess, u go to church?.  Church N Hmng traditional R 2 diffrent style.. in case you've never being to a church one either.
Church ones doesn't use the thingy stuff. Everyone is quite..there's a cum ness in the room.. it almost looks like there was no dead person...but wen the old ways R in, everyone knows tat sumone has past on..

The hmng flute tingy is to show the way..or sumting like tat.N if you've never being to one let's just say..the drum beat is very sad. It has a lonely heart broken beat...For wen you heard tat drum it tells you tat a person has past away... You'll never heard tat drum's beat inside any home. It only get beat @ the place of the dead..
Wen you walk into other ppl's house they sumtimes hang tat on the wall, either to show tat they still do the old hmng way...
Church ppl don't like tat flute cuz they have droped the old ways...

Andways the folding of paper you speak of.. it is the dead's ppl money... Wen you burn lots N lots of it... They dead can use it in the after life. I 4got wat all the meaning are.. the boat is look like gold/sliver bars.(i can't spell in hmng. So i can't say it wat i want to tell you) the cut squre cut one look like dallors..then you have the ones tat are stamp like coin cuts tat you see hanging on the wall or the ones tat ppl bring with them on a stick..
So U have the folded boats, cutted sheet of papers N the coins...

Let's say if u still do the old ways N you don't burn paper $$$ for the past one to use.. they will linger or stuck cuz they don't have $$$to buy or spend.. just like the livings do...they will come as a dream asking for $$.
I don't no much but i hope this kinda show u sum ways.